After an unprecedented suspension of the competition, format adjustments imposed through a pandemic and a replacement for the venue of the final, the Champions League will end on Sunday, 425 days after the first match.
Either Paris Saint-Germain wins the European Cup for the first time, or Bayern Munich will win the continent’s first festival six times.
And only a few hundred people, adding players and officials controlled by the coronavirus, will be able to participate in the final, which will be played in Lisbon at the end of August than in Istanbul in May as originally planned.
Never before has the European Cup been distributed in such an empty environment. There is no old gathering of tens of thousands of followers in the host city. Only the wonderful trophy of Rossio, Lisbon’s main central square, shows that the greatest adjustment of world football takes place in the Portuguese capital.
Around Benfica’s stadium, there is no bachelor sign indicating that a match to be watched on TELEVISION through millions of people on Sunday night will be played indoors.
The lack of enthusiasm and atmosphere in this 65th European Cup does not take away the magnitude of the occasion for the groups. For the first time since 1998, the latter is a meeting of two groups classified as national champions.
Bayern Munich v Paris Saint-Germain
TIME: p.m. Et
O: Estadio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal
TV: CBS Sports Network, Univision for Spanish-based broadcast
STREAMING: CBS All-Access
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of its formation, following the merger of Parisian clubs, PSG is younger than the 65-year-old European Cup. Becoming a European champion would be the culmination of a nine-year adventure of generous investments since the Qatari State bought the club.
“These will be the maximum 90 minutes of our lives as footballers and in the history of the club,” said Marco Verratti, who has been at PSG for 8 years.
More than $1 billion in player investment, adding the signing of Neymar’s world record of 222 million euros in 2017, has made PSG as a dominant force in France that the seasons are a procession. Seven of the last 8 Ligue 1 titles have been won through the PSG and 4 of the last six campaigns have ended in national three-pointers.
But PSG had been synonymous with champions league collapses, as it failed to qualify for the semi-finals for a quarter of a century until this month in Lisbon.
PSG: Neymar gets glory in Champions League final
Since winning the Champions League for the fifth time in 20 thirteen, Bayern have lost 4 semi-finals, to score the Champions Real Madrid (twice), Atletico Madrid and Barcelona 13 times.
Founded in 1900, Bayern established itself as a super club long before the states began investing in football. While the PSG is an extension of the padded strength of Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at Bayern, it is the enthusiasts who make up football through a system of mass clubs.
But a quarter of the company is owned by sportswear company Adidas, insurance giant Allianz and car manufacturer Audi. And acceptance of Qatar Airways’ sponsorship since 2018 has noted that the club was denounced through human rights teams for accepting investments from a Gulf country where migrant staff face inhumane operating conditions.
Bayern is a wonderful unit of attack. While PSG scored 25 goals in 10 games in their first final, Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry scored 24 of them in Bayern’s total of 42 goals.
With 15 goals and six assists in Europe, 32-year-old Lewandowski is his season’s career. Only Cristiano Ronaldo – with 17 goals for Real Madrid in 2013-14 – has scored more in the Champions League.
But Lewandowski will not contest the Ballon d’Or after France Football canceled the award for the fit player this season due to the disruption of the coronavirus that saw the French league reduced in March with PSG declared champion.
Could this resolution be annulled if the PSG were France’s first European champion since Marseille in 1993?
Kylian Mbappé and Neymar would be good candidates for the Ballon d’Or. Angel Di Maria would also claim a name after reinvigorating his PSG career after a depressing 2014–15 season at Manchester United, with one purpose and two assists in the 3-0 semi-final win over Leipzig.
But PSG players didn’t come close to Lewandowski’s deadly qualities ahead of the goal. Mauro Icardi and Mbappé have scored only five champions League goals each, With Mbappé providing five assists.
LINE OF CHAMPIONS: Apart, Lewandowski and Mbappé are seeking their first European title
Bayern’s 3-0 win over Lyon in the semi-final proved convincing, but only France’s poor finish prevented him from advancing. It can be expensive if David Alaba and Jerome Boateng, in Bayern’s central defence, leave too much room for Mbappé, Di Maria and Neymar.
“It is very vital that we can cut the overtaking routes so that we don’t let ourselves play the ball in the opposition area,” Joshua Kimmich, who plays on the right side or in the middle of Bayern’s defensive field, said Saturday through a translator. . “We played with a top line opposite the opposition and yet they gave us results.”
It may be awkward last night under a PSG blouse for Thiago Silva, 35, alongside Presnel Kimpembe, as Lewandowski is looking to climb to his 55 goals for this one-year-old season.
Hansi Flick did not take over Bayern until November, earning an internal promotion after Niko Kovac was sacked with the team that occupied fourth place in the Bundesliga. The resumption saw Bayern win an eighth consecutive Bundesliga title, win the German Cup and triumph in the Champions League final for the first time since 2013.
Would Thomas Tuchel still live up to PSG if it hadn’t been for recovery in the 90th minute to defeat Atalanta in the first quarter-final in a singles attack in Lisbon almost two weeks ago? Winning French titles is the bareest expected of Tuchel. At the end of his moment-long season at the helm, former Borussia Dortmund coach will be judged for his European record through the Qatari owners.